After the last few years, we've been busy getting back to making music.
One of our favourite things about Start Together is that it has been an instrument for talented
local and international producers and engineers.
They use our various facilities to help bring their visions to life, sometimes for their own music,
sometimes producing for other artists.
We're always happy to connect you with a suitable producer to help bring your project to life.
Here's a brief update on some incredible people who regularly use our studios throughout the year.
Michael Bell
Michael is a young, motivated producer, engineer & mixer who has recently returned to Belfast. He spent some years studying recording in Liverpool while working in many of the cities commercial facilities. This was after he assisted at Start Together during his teen years. We're delighted to have had Michael back at Start Together working closely with an impressive collection of artists including Taylor Lally, Wohn, Von Loop, Patrick McEleney, Kid Apollo, Birches and Foreign Mornings.
Darragh Tibbs
Darragh first appeared in Start Together while drumming in a band, later completed his university placement with us and quickly became a regular presence, bringing his enthusiasm to sessions with a wide range of clients. He often drums on his own productions and is very musically involved in developing ideas together with the artist. He's currently working with Eve Belle across our studios as well as working in studios across Ireland, mixing live sound and drumming.
Niall Doran
Niall has been working many of his magical sessions at Start Together for over a decade. In that time we've seen him progress from an eager student, to a world-class engineer. His skills are in capturing the performance, through an arsenal of precise, natural engineering techniques. These have seen him work on such a wide range of sessions, from world music, jazz and opera to punk, indie and metal. He recently has excelled with full orchestral recordings and also has produced audio for award winning audio books. Recent projects include The Ulster Orchestra, Beyond Skin and Problem Patterns.
Sophie Price
Sophie is a punk rock guitarist, genre-blending electronic composer and a killer recording engineer. Since lockdown struck and sessions had to pause, Sophie began making incredible electronic music as SPKDK, playing shows and DJ sets across Ireland. She is currently working on a debut record with her punk rock pals in Gender Chores and is getting ready for a range of sessions with other artists, from indie rock to ambient electronica.
Ryan McGroarty
Ryan McGroarty has been on overdrive in the last few years. He's been writing, recording and touring the world with his indie pop duo Beauty Sleep. He's also been bringing his production skills to a wide range of artists including MayRosa, Catalan, Son Of The Hound and many more. He's sensationally musical as well as incredible attentive to all things audio. This mixture of skill and his relentless quest for new, mind-bending sounds have made him the perfect collaborator for solo artists as well as bands. He regularly rents our Studio 3 for his productions, as well as travelling to produce and using Studio 1 when he needs to make a massive sound.
Chris Ryan
Chris is a frequent engineer at Studio 1, where he seems to enjoy our collection of drums, amplifiers and recording equipment for his sensational productions, both for his own award-winning band Robocobra Quartet, as well as recent projects here with Junk Drawer, NewDad, Just Mustard, Enola Gay, Chalk and many more.
Carl Small
Carl is another engineer we love to see booking time in studio 1 for his projects, which are full of energy, danger and life. None represent this more than his recent monster of a production with his own band Mob Wife. He can also take it down a notch, with beautiful and subtle productions and wonderful natural captures of acoustic and folk music including recent sessions wit Myles McCormack.
Rocky O'Reilly
Mostly hiding away in Studio 2, studio owner Rocky has been adding a lot of synths & pedals to his collection while collaborating, writing, producing and mixing an even wider range of music than ever. Lockdowns were spent completing long term album projects that are finally set for release in 2023. He also jumped back into songwriting, collaborating with Roe (BBC Radio 1 Introducing Playlist single) Reevah, as well as international artists including Dead Pony, Callum Pitt, Blue Violet, Fatherson, Maris, Bailey and more to be announced. He also developed a knack for helping opera & classical music sound larger than life; mixing with world-leading Belfast composer Conor Mitchell for his Ivor Novello nominated piece Democracy Dances, The Musician children's opera and Conor's recent marvel, MASS. He also oversaw and mixed the audio production of a series of special Ulster Orchestra sessions and produced and mixed the audio for NI Opera's award winning film Old Friends and Other Days. Alongside the life-affirming sessions, he's kept his mind on local music. In 2020-21 he attempted to encourage Stormont to consider musician's needs around COVID, he also helped to secure funding for community and new artist projects, delivering opportunities for a range of musicians with the Ready To Rule production sessions, NI Electronic Workshop with Hannah Peel, Magy's Farm Collective sessions, Iain Archer artist writing project and support for Belfast metal label The Distortion Project. Recent projects include sessions with Be Like Pablo (Scottish Power Pop) HAVVK (Dublin indie-grunge) The Wood Burning Savages (NI Music Winners) The Florentinas, Strange New Places, Lock Horns, Slomatics, Nina Hain (Switzerland), Patrick McEleney. He also managed to take a short holiday,
and may do again.